I've been thinking about it for a while, and I can't really come up with a way that a tablet computer could ever be a true, useful, multi-purpose computer. The form factor just doesn't work. Steve Jobs can talk all day about how great the on-screen keyboard is, it might actually be the best possible software keyboard in the universe, it's still not going to be as nice to do serious "keyboard-required" work on it. Having a keyboard and the display in the same plane is never going to be ideal ergonomics. A touch screen has lots of possibilities, but it'll never be as precise as a mouse driven cursor.
Other companies have experimented with it, and I'm sure Apple has tried a boatload of prototypes as well, and if they could come up with a way to make it really work, they'd ship them and sell truckloads. But I think the reality is that no matter how hard you try to make it look and act like a traditional computer, people won't be able to use it like a tradition computer.
That doesn't mean that I think Apple made all of the right decisions and tradeoffs here. A little bit of multi-tasking doesn't seem like it should be impossible to make work well. Maybe in the next version.
Yeah exactly, there's a lot of evidence of this already happening. Why just the other day Google released their version of the iPhone and they've totally locked it down just like Apple...err...what's that? It's not locked down? You can install whatever you want on it? Oh...
You're right on, but you do your argument a disservice by speaking down to the people who want the "comfort of not thinking". When I'm working on this computer I do plenty of thinking, but anytime the machine takes my train of thought away from the building I'm designing and instead makes me worry about RAM or anti-virus or whatever else, it's wasting my time. Not wanting to deal with that kind of distraction on a regular basis doesn't make someone a non-thinker/doer.
For some people the computer is an end in and of itself, but for most people, computers are tools that help them do other things.
What could you do with the iPhone that you couldn't do with any of the smartphones already on the market? Not much, but for most of the things I'm likely to do, I can do it way more easily thanks to an interface that was thought out and well designed for the particular device. As opposed to the old technique of trying to stuff windows into a tablet.
You get the app-store and an OS based on the iPhone. It's a pretty decent touchscreen OS.
They're not going to do that. I think the core issue that a lot of people are having trouble coming to terms with is that Apple does not see the iphone/ipod/ipad as a smaller version of the Mac, or even necessarily as smaller computers. They are basically electronic appliances, closer to a gameboy than an iMac. They just happen to share some of the same pieces, both in terms of hardware and software. But they're very different.
The failure to understand those differences are the main reason why the different tablet computers that various companies have released in the past have mostly failed to go anywhere in the market. Apple understood this when they made the iphone, I wouldn't expect them to somehow forget it when they next come out with the next version of OSX.
Besides, you need the abilities of OSX to actually write apps for the iphone/ipad platform. If they killed the mac, they'd kill their app store.
How terrible that a machine with no real keyboard or mouse doesn't run a bunch of applications designed to be used with a keyboard and a mouse. If only someone would create a device that did that, everyone would love it and flock to it and they'd own the market. We can only hope that one day HP and Microsoft team up to create some sort of tablet PC. It'll take the world by storm.
p.s. In case you didn't get the sarcasm, they've been making those things for years and except for a few niche markets, nobody has cared.
It fits a perfect spot for me. But I think my priorities are a little bit different than yours. The 3G is irrelevant to me, because I see this as something that I'd just use around the house, where I've got WiFi. I wouldn't be carrying this around with me everywhere like I do my iPhone. I hardly ever even take my laptop out of the house.
I like to fart around on the internet while I sit on the couch in my living room and watch TV with my wife. I can currently do that on my 17" MacBook, which I love, but which often a pain in the ass to deal with while chilling on the couch. It's a little heavier than I like, every time I move or get up I need to carefully set it down, I generally need to find a big hardcover book or something to slip under it because the heat it produces is uncomfortable, and the battery has a couple years on it and can't make it through a full football game on a single charge (I'd rather not have to deal with moving the power cord).
I can also sit on the couch and browse the web on my iphone, which mostly solves the above problems, but with the downside of a tiny screen that requires lots and lots of constant zooming in and out and panning around and that gets aggravating. The other primary home use of my iphone is us lying in bed and watching stupid youtube videos before we fall asleep. Oh, and also I use while I'm camping out on the toilet taking care of business.
Anyways, my point is that I can come up with a bunch of things that I use my iphone for that I think the ipad could do better. And at least one use for my laptop that the ipad would do better. Now I'm not sure that it does those things so much better that it's worth $500, but if prices come down a little I could see it becoming more appealing to me.
Consuming media is an important part of furthering ones own creative endeavors. Not to mention that there's nothing wrong with relaxing and watching movies from time to time even if I never have any intention of creating my own film.
Nobody in their right mind is ever going to seriously hack code on a tablet. It's not the right tool for the job. Excuse me if I can't get upset at Apple for recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of a particular form factor and designing around them.
There's some validity to that argument, but it's not like Apple could just install a full version of OSX on it and ship it out the door and have a great tablet computer. A pure touch screen interface is not a particularly good match for current desktop/laptop computer OS's, spending some time with any windows tablet will quickly make that apparent. Apple would have to seriously rework OSX to be user friendly on a tablet. They already reworked it to make it user friendly on the iphone. They decided that it'd be better for them to work up from the iphone OSX than down from the MacOSX.
I'm not sure when anyone from Apple said that it was going to be a tablet computer, and not a super ipod touch. I think Apple very consciously designed it as basically a super ipod touch. Most likely because they figure they can sell truckloads more giant ipod touches than they can tablet computers.
It's too bad for you that it's not what you wanted it to be. But I don't see how that's so complicated an idea that "If you don't like it then don't buy it" doesn't work.
So what exactly are you looking for that would've made this the next great thing?
I use the hell out of my iphone, and in my view the two things that most limit its usefulness are the slowness of 3G, and the size of the screen.
The benefits of a larger screen size obvious have some tradeoffs with regards to portability. But I see no problem with Apple offering two sides of the spectrum and letting consumers decide which features are more compelling.
Nails would add too much weight to the device. Instead it detects someone illegally prying it open, and contacts Apple HQ. They then dispatch a hit squad who will storm your house and manually drive nails into your face with beautiful unibody hammers.
The usefulness of a larger screen than an iPhone for many many tasks is obvious. If you have a way to make that bigger screen fit into our pockets, please develop a product and sell it. You'll make a ridiculous amount of money.
I doubt it'll be long before you can buy any number of stylus accessories for it. Sure, they probably won't have all sorts of neato buttons and such built in, but it'll at least allow you to draw in a more familiar way.
Yeah, or maybe y'all could learn to accept the fact that the tech industry isn't actually some sort of magical wonderland where everything is new and different and special. You're not smarter than everyone else, your field is not so much more important than every other field, and that special treatment you got for a couple decades was just because computers were new and shiny for a bit. You're just one more piece of the giant machine that is civilization. The machine is just as reliant on mechanics as it is on techies.
A good mechanic can make plenty of money. A really good bricklayer can make a really good living. They're just as good at their jobs as you are at yours, many of them are just as smart as you are, and you don't deserve to be held in higher regard than them or treated differently just because you peck out code all day.
Basically, techies are starting to learn all the real world lessons that every other profession has already had to learn. You're not the flashy new kid anymore, you're just another guy trying to get by. Don't expect the world to treat you any differently.
The Corps of Engineers had been telling the city that things were fine, and nobody had anything to worry about. Even now, after Katrina, with way more scrutiny and lots of different people pointing out various flaws and issues with how the Corps is proceeding, they continue to tell us that they've got it all under control, and that it's all going great.
So basically the best option was to just throw up their hands, close EvE, and go play some other game? Just accept the fact that poorly thought out game mechanics and inability of CCP to create an infrastructure to support the inevitable results of those mechanics has forced them to give up a system with hardly a fight?
CCP should be ashamed that their game created a situation like this, where hundreds(thousands?)of people can get together and organize on short notice to go have some fun, and then have to choose between logging off and giving up without a fight or staring at a black screen for a few hours while their crap gets destroyed.
I think that's definitely a big part of it. It's also convenient for a company to be able to point out to their curent employees that there are other competent people out there who could replace them, so keep your expectations in check.
I think it makes a lot of sense to say that in a game like that, there are going to be people who exchange real money for in game money. There's obviously a huge demand for it, because there's a big industry that's sprung up to fill that demand. Once you accept that it's going to happen whether you like it or not, it makes a lot of sense to provide a somewhat controlled system for it, that allows you to monitor it as well as maybe even make a little extra money off of it.
Not to mention that it makes your "moral standing" against RMT stronger. Similar to how around ten years ago the record labels were complaining that people were downloading songs without paying for them, but at the same time not offering much in the way of convenient paid downloads. It made their argument weaker. Once a "legitimate" alternative is available, your case against those side markets is more reasonable.
I design buildings for a living, and in my field, the job title "architect" is pretty highly regulated. I have a masters degree in architecture and over 4 years of experience practicing, yet I can't refer to myself as anything containing the word "architect" or else I face potential legal issues. To use the word "architect" in my job description, I have to be licensed, which requires 3 years of internship work, then passing a bunch of licensing exams. And then continuous education credits as well as yearly fees for pretty much the rest of my life.
My gripe isn't with you, it's just silly how the architecture profession has gone to all of this trouble harassing the newcomers to its profession, yet at the same time allowed other fields to take the term "architect" and hand it out almost arbitrarily.
I agree mostly with what you said. I am pretty well convinced that there were people in our government who deliberately muddled the truth and even outright lied about aspects of 9/11 in order to advance their own agendas. But that's a far cry from believing that there's some grand conspiracy to fool the world about what happened. I'm not talking about arguing over details or motives or whatever, I'm talking about people who think ridiculous things like the government remote piloting planes into the towers and then setting off explosives that they had previously planted. Those are conspiracy theory type people.
I think that many elements in the government and elsewhere have been less than honest about the hijackers' backgrounds, motives, and training. I wish that the media and more honest people in the government would work a little harder to try to clear up some of the misconceptions and call out people who are just plain lying. But I don't think that a bunch of random text messages from the morning of the attack are going to tell us much about what really happened. It's going to be a pile of confusion, panic, and other completely unrelated messages, all taken out of context. The only valid thing that one might be able to take from reading all of that a general sense of the confusion and emotion of that day. There's just not enough meat there for someone with an objective mind to determine any real truths from. But there's plenty of little snippets that can easily be bent to fit whatever arbitrary belief an individual might be trying to reinforce for himself/herself.
I'm not arguing that no one will try and do that. I'm arguing that it doesn't really matter. The people who will look at these random sentence fragments and see proof of a 9/11 conspiracy already believe it was a conspiracy. Nothing will change except that they'll have slightly more random nonsense to add to their already impressive pile of older random nonsense.
This stuff isn't going to cause throngs of people who've already rejected or ignored the conspiracy theories to suddenly become believers.
The conspiracy theories are already full of thousands of snippets of stuff, this new data isn't going to change anyone's mind. People who want to believe in a conspiracy will find "proof" in whatever information they get, so it doesn't really matter what's available.
Basically, there's already so many barely contextualized, ill-thought out, and poorly worded conspiracy theories out there that it doesn't really matter if this new data spawns a few more. I think most people have already chosen a side on the whole government conspiracy angle, and a bunch of snippets of pager text isn't going to sway anyone either way. The conspiracy nuts will have lots of fun endlessly debating all this new stuff for a few months, and everyone else will shrug their shoulders and go on with their lives.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been thinking about it for a while, and I can't really come up with a way that a tablet computer could ever be a true, useful, multi-purpose computer. The form factor just doesn't work. Steve Jobs can talk all day about how great the on-screen keyboard is, it might actually be the best possible software keyboard in the universe, it's still not going to be as nice to do serious "keyboard-required" work on it. Having a keyboard and the display in the same plane is never going to be ideal ergonomics. A touch screen has lots of possibilities, but it'll never be as precise as a mouse driven cursor.
Other companies have experimented with it, and I'm sure Apple has tried a boatload of prototypes as well, and if they could come up with a way to make it really work, they'd ship them and sell truckloads. But I think the reality is that no matter how hard you try to make it look and act like a traditional computer, people won't be able to use it like a tradition computer.
That doesn't mean that I think Apple made all of the right decisions and tradeoffs here. A little bit of multi-tasking doesn't seem like it should be impossible to make work well. Maybe in the next version.
Yeah exactly, there's a lot of evidence of this already happening. Why just the other day Google released their version of the iPhone and they've totally locked it down just like Apple...err...what's that? It's not locked down? You can install whatever you want on it? Oh...
You're right on, but you do your argument a disservice by speaking down to the people who want the "comfort of not thinking". When I'm working on this computer I do plenty of thinking, but anytime the machine takes my train of thought away from the building I'm designing and instead makes me worry about RAM or anti-virus or whatever else, it's wasting my time. Not wanting to deal with that kind of distraction on a regular basis doesn't make someone a non-thinker/doer.
For some people the computer is an end in and of itself, but for most people, computers are tools that help them do other things.
What could you do with the iPhone that you couldn't do with any of the smartphones already on the market? Not much, but for most of the things I'm likely to do, I can do it way more easily thanks to an interface that was thought out and well designed for the particular device. As opposed to the old technique of trying to stuff windows into a tablet.
You get the app-store and an OS based on the iPhone. It's a pretty decent touchscreen OS.
They're not going to do that. I think the core issue that a lot of people are having trouble coming to terms with is that Apple does not see the iphone/ipod/ipad as a smaller version of the Mac, or even necessarily as smaller computers. They are basically electronic appliances, closer to a gameboy than an iMac. They just happen to share some of the same pieces, both in terms of hardware and software. But they're very different.
The failure to understand those differences are the main reason why the different tablet computers that various companies have released in the past have mostly failed to go anywhere in the market. Apple understood this when they made the iphone, I wouldn't expect them to somehow forget it when they next come out with the next version of OSX.
Besides, you need the abilities of OSX to actually write apps for the iphone/ipad platform. If they killed the mac, they'd kill their app store.
How terrible that a machine with no real keyboard or mouse doesn't run a bunch of applications designed to be used with a keyboard and a mouse. If only someone would create a device that did that, everyone would love it and flock to it and they'd own the market. We can only hope that one day HP and Microsoft team up to create some sort of tablet PC. It'll take the world by storm.
p.s. In case you didn't get the sarcasm, they've been making those things for years and except for a few niche markets, nobody has cared.
It fits a perfect spot for me. But I think my priorities are a little bit different than yours. The 3G is irrelevant to me, because I see this as something that I'd just use around the house, where I've got WiFi. I wouldn't be carrying this around with me everywhere like I do my iPhone. I hardly ever even take my laptop out of the house.
I like to fart around on the internet while I sit on the couch in my living room and watch TV with my wife. I can currently do that on my 17" MacBook, which I love, but which often a pain in the ass to deal with while chilling on the couch. It's a little heavier than I like, every time I move or get up I need to carefully set it down, I generally need to find a big hardcover book or something to slip under it because the heat it produces is uncomfortable, and the battery has a couple years on it and can't make it through a full football game on a single charge (I'd rather not have to deal with moving the power cord).
I can also sit on the couch and browse the web on my iphone, which mostly solves the above problems, but with the downside of a tiny screen that requires lots and lots of constant zooming in and out and panning around and that gets aggravating. The other primary home use of my iphone is us lying in bed and watching stupid youtube videos before we fall asleep. Oh, and also I use while I'm camping out on the toilet taking care of business.
Anyways, my point is that I can come up with a bunch of things that I use my iphone for that I think the ipad could do better. And at least one use for my laptop that the ipad would do better. Now I'm not sure that it does those things so much better that it's worth $500, but if prices come down a little I could see it becoming more appealing to me.
Consuming media is an important part of furthering ones own creative endeavors. Not to mention that there's nothing wrong with relaxing and watching movies from time to time even if I never have any intention of creating my own film.
Nobody in their right mind is ever going to seriously hack code on a tablet. It's not the right tool for the job. Excuse me if I can't get upset at Apple for recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of a particular form factor and designing around them.
There's some validity to that argument, but it's not like Apple could just install a full version of OSX on it and ship it out the door and have a great tablet computer. A pure touch screen interface is not a particularly good match for current desktop/laptop computer OS's, spending some time with any windows tablet will quickly make that apparent. Apple would have to seriously rework OSX to be user friendly on a tablet. They already reworked it to make it user friendly on the iphone. They decided that it'd be better for them to work up from the iphone OSX than down from the MacOSX.
I'm not sure when anyone from Apple said that it was going to be a tablet computer, and not a super ipod touch. I think Apple very consciously designed it as basically a super ipod touch. Most likely because they figure they can sell truckloads more giant ipod touches than they can tablet computers.
It's too bad for you that it's not what you wanted it to be. But I don't see how that's so complicated an idea that "If you don't like it then don't buy it" doesn't work.
So what exactly are you looking for that would've made this the next great thing?
I use the hell out of my iphone, and in my view the two things that most limit its usefulness are the slowness of 3G, and the size of the screen.
The benefits of a larger screen size obvious have some tradeoffs with regards to portability. But I see no problem with Apple offering two sides of the spectrum and letting consumers decide which features are more compelling.
Nails would add too much weight to the device. Instead it detects someone illegally prying it open, and contacts Apple HQ. They then dispatch a hit squad who will storm your house and manually drive nails into your face with beautiful unibody hammers.
The usefulness of a larger screen than an iPhone for many many tasks is obvious. If you have a way to make that bigger screen fit into our pockets, please develop a product and sell it. You'll make a ridiculous amount of money.
I doubt it'll be long before you can buy any number of stylus accessories for it. Sure, they probably won't have all sorts of neato buttons and such built in, but it'll at least allow you to draw in a more familiar way.
There's a big difference between the display device and the content.
Yeah, or maybe y'all could learn to accept the fact that the tech industry isn't actually some sort of magical wonderland where everything is new and different and special. You're not smarter than everyone else, your field is not so much more important than every other field, and that special treatment you got for a couple decades was just because computers were new and shiny for a bit. You're just one more piece of the giant machine that is civilization. The machine is just as reliant on mechanics as it is on techies.
A good mechanic can make plenty of money. A really good bricklayer can make a really good living. They're just as good at their jobs as you are at yours, many of them are just as smart as you are, and you don't deserve to be held in higher regard than them or treated differently just because you peck out code all day.
Basically, techies are starting to learn all the real world lessons that every other profession has already had to learn. You're not the flashy new kid anymore, you're just another guy trying to get by. Don't expect the world to treat you any differently.
That's a good story, but it provides absolutely zero insight into the questions that the parent post asked.
The Corps of Engineers had been telling the city that things were fine, and nobody had anything to worry about. Even now, after Katrina, with way more scrutiny and lots of different people pointing out various flaws and issues with how the Corps is proceeding, they continue to tell us that they've got it all under control, and that it's all going great.
So basically the best option was to just throw up their hands, close EvE, and go play some other game? Just accept the fact that poorly thought out game mechanics and inability of CCP to create an infrastructure to support the inevitable results of those mechanics has forced them to give up a system with hardly a fight?
CCP should be ashamed that their game created a situation like this, where hundreds(thousands?)of people can get together and organize on short notice to go have some fun, and then have to choose between logging off and giving up without a fight or staring at a black screen for a few hours while their crap gets destroyed.
I think that's definitely a big part of it. It's also convenient for a company to be able to point out to their curent employees that there are other competent people out there who could replace them, so keep your expectations in check.
I think it makes a lot of sense to say that in a game like that, there are going to be people who exchange real money for in game money. There's obviously a huge demand for it, because there's a big industry that's sprung up to fill that demand. Once you accept that it's going to happen whether you like it or not, it makes a lot of sense to provide a somewhat controlled system for it, that allows you to monitor it as well as maybe even make a little extra money off of it.
Not to mention that it makes your "moral standing" against RMT stronger. Similar to how around ten years ago the record labels were complaining that people were downloading songs without paying for them, but at the same time not offering much in the way of convenient paid downloads. It made their argument weaker. Once a "legitimate" alternative is available, your case against those side markets is more reasonable.
You're a pet peeve of mine ;)
I design buildings for a living, and in my field, the job title "architect" is pretty highly regulated. I have a masters degree in architecture and over 4 years of experience practicing, yet I can't refer to myself as anything containing the word "architect" or else I face potential legal issues. To use the word "architect" in my job description, I have to be licensed, which requires 3 years of internship work, then passing a bunch of licensing exams. And then continuous education credits as well as yearly fees for pretty much the rest of my life.
My gripe isn't with you, it's just silly how the architecture profession has gone to all of this trouble harassing the newcomers to its profession, yet at the same time allowed other fields to take the term "architect" and hand it out almost arbitrarily.
OK, I'm done.
I agree mostly with what you said. I am pretty well convinced that there were people in our government who deliberately muddled the truth and even outright lied about aspects of 9/11 in order to advance their own agendas. But that's a far cry from believing that there's some grand conspiracy to fool the world about what happened. I'm not talking about arguing over details or motives or whatever, I'm talking about people who think ridiculous things like the government remote piloting planes into the towers and then setting off explosives that they had previously planted. Those are conspiracy theory type people.
I think that many elements in the government and elsewhere have been less than honest about the hijackers' backgrounds, motives, and training. I wish that the media and more honest people in the government would work a little harder to try to clear up some of the misconceptions and call out people who are just plain lying. But I don't think that a bunch of random text messages from the morning of the attack are going to tell us much about what really happened. It's going to be a pile of confusion, panic, and other completely unrelated messages, all taken out of context. The only valid thing that one might be able to take from reading all of that a general sense of the confusion and emotion of that day. There's just not enough meat there for someone with an objective mind to determine any real truths from. But there's plenty of little snippets that can easily be bent to fit whatever arbitrary belief an individual might be trying to reinforce for himself/herself.
I'm not arguing that no one will try and do that. I'm arguing that it doesn't really matter. The people who will look at these random sentence fragments and see proof of a 9/11 conspiracy already believe it was a conspiracy. Nothing will change except that they'll have slightly more random nonsense to add to their already impressive pile of older random nonsense.
This stuff isn't going to cause throngs of people who've already rejected or ignored the conspiracy theories to suddenly become believers.
The conspiracy theories are already full of thousands of snippets of stuff, this new data isn't going to change anyone's mind. People who want to believe in a conspiracy will find "proof" in whatever information they get, so it doesn't really matter what's available.
Basically, there's already so many barely contextualized, ill-thought out, and poorly worded conspiracy theories out there that it doesn't really matter if this new data spawns a few more. I think most people have already chosen a side on the whole government conspiracy angle, and a bunch of snippets of pager text isn't going to sway anyone either way. The conspiracy nuts will have lots of fun endlessly debating all this new stuff for a few months, and everyone else will shrug their shoulders and go on with their lives.